>> BLOWING THE COVER —September 2008 Interview is in full-on Fabien Baron mode, with a glossy cover, font blocks, designer cameos, plus an interview with Kate Moss and the first Martin Margiela interview in ten years.  A preview of the goods with just one click (NSFW). [Chic Report]

»When it comes to good causes, Karl Lagerfeld supports himself [Fashionista]

»Jil Sander may be for sale again; Would Kanye West cough up for ownership? [WWD, FWD]

»Brian Reyes was well-repped at The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 premiere last night [Chic Report]

»Nick Knight joins Naomi Campbell in taking a stand [The Cut]

»Julia Restoin-Roitfeld met boyfriend Magnus Berger at Fabien Baron's Baron & Baron, where he still works [FWD]

»Project Runway's Austin Scarlett: Like a poor man's Yves Saint Laurent [FabSugar]

»A preview of Sasha Pivovarova in Fashion Rocks [The Cut]

>> Earlier this year, when Fabien Baron left his post as creative director at Vogue Paris to become an editorial director at Interview, people were unnerved, worried that the winning formula in place at VP would be upset. 

As Fabien tells it in a new interview with Hint, he and Carine Roitfeld still talk, but he was ready to move on: "I felt like there were no options left in France to do something important at that time. So I left."

As for Interview, which is officially relaunched in September, "it will be a total redesign."

"The size is new, the paper is new. I think the photography and attention to all the details will be new."

And Stephanie Seymour, newly named contributing fashion editor at Interview (and wife of the magazine's owner), will "be like a muse for the magazine."

"She'll come up with ideas, do some interviews, help us, with anything actually. She's also very charismatic, with very good opinions on things."

But he's not so optimistic about the state of fashion as a whole.

There's definitely a lack of quality going on, a lack of craftsmanship, a lack of intellect. There's also a search for ideas. Things don't look as good as they should. What happened was you had these big luxury brands that advertised themselves really well and opened mega-stores. They've put out a lot of smaller products of a lower grade and communicated those products at a lower common denominator. Then you have mass-market companies like H&M, Gap and Banana Republic that are trying to go up. So today, if you look at the advertising for the two sides, if you remove the logos, what you're looking at is very similar. This overlap has created a blend. High and low are not so different anymore. We have to deal with it.

Speaking of fashion brands, he's been asked to start his own but "said no to all of them."

"It's too complicated. I'm good at branding. I wouldn't know what button to use. I've thought about it, though, but I'm not interested."

Now that's something to respect, someone who knows what he's good at and sticks to it.
*image: source

>> As a well-established fashion photographer, Mario Testino apparently has no qualms about implying certain, less-than-flattering things about his competitors . . . and even his clients, on the record.

In a three week-long diary documenting his work from late May to mid-June, Mario professes to be obsessed with British models, but also Toni Garrn:

She's 16 and may be the new Claudia Schiffer. She was also picked up by Calvin Klein, but when I saw their campaign I thought it looked . . . I thought you didn't really get her. A lot of campaigns transform the girl into what the designer wants. But when I met her I was so taken with her I was, like, 'Oh my God, Toni!' . . . I want . . . the girls to have a starring role. It was about them, not the designer.

The Spring 2008 Calvin Klein campaign he's referring to was photographed by Fabien Baron, who Mario clearly doesn't see eye-to-eye with; don't expect for any Testino-Interview collaborations anytime soon.

Mario also knows how to subtly bite the hand that feeds him:

Most of my work is for American Vogue. I shoot for it almost every issue. This is a magazine that sells 1.2m copies and is probably read by 3m. Its reach is so wide you have to be quite easily understood. Whereas British Vogue's aesthetics are different. You can't give them work that's too bland. It's got to have a certain humour; a certain fun.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did he just call Vogue "bland"? You don't say . . .

Finally, just to reiterate what a wonderful, dedicated, and original photographer he is, Mario goes over how he comes up with his ideas:

The moment you accept a job, the responsibility is on you; if the photograph is not delivered, the only name that lingers is yours. That has its pros and cons. Pros in the sense that you can be at a shoot and an idea can come from the secretary or manicurist and you can benefit from it: when people remember the image, they don't know the manicurist gave you the idea.

Ah, the integrity.

*image: source

»Since Kate started her line with Topshop, luxury brands haven't altogether dropped her, but they have started to cast her in their diffusion lines rather than their main lines [The Cut]

»Behind the scenes with Jessica Stam, Lily Donaldson, and Doutzen Kroes at a recent V Magazine shoot — Lily likes to make use of her tongue [jdivision]

»Daisy Lowe is rumored to be working on an album with boyf Mark Ronson [W Editor's Blog]

»Lisa Mayock of Vena Cava likes her deodorant, while her design partner Sophie Buhai just likes "looking after number one" [The Fashion Informer]

»Anna Wintour's an Obama girl [Page Six]

»Fabien Baron and Karl Templer shot an editorial for New York Times's T Magazine on May 30 that will come out in September [FWD]

»Manolo Blahnik will be the 12th Rodeo Drive Walk of Style honoree [WWD]

»Just in case you don't have enough Agyness Deyn in your life: Watch her attempt to juggle a soccer ball [YouTube]

»Sneak peeks of the Vera Wang, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Just Cavalli, and Jean Paul Gaultier Resort 2009 collections [Style.com, Style.com, WWD, WWD]